Britain falls upon money laundering
As struggling with money laundering and terrorist finance is a very painstaking and continuous fight, countries are launching ever new plans regarding this problem. The plans, actions, measures and legislation changes of China, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Indonesia, Cayman and South Africa, and other countries have been discussed previously. Now, it is Britain’s turn to take new measures.
On February 28, 2007, Britain has launched a new plan aimed at combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
According to the plan, law enforcement agencies, policy departments and the private sector will cooperate in setting up key priorities for the future and new measures. The measures will be designed to increase the the financial sector’ role of a weapon against international crime and terrorism.
Home Office Minister, Tony McNulty stated that all terrorist activities are underpinned by money, so “the disruption of terrorist financing is a key element of the government’s overall fight against terrorism”.
Director-general of an organized crime agency, Stephen Lander said that tackling criminal finances and profits is a primary effort to disrupt organized crime.
The proposed measures for combating money laundering and terrorist finance include consultation with charities to keep them safe from terrorist, exploitation and use of asset freezing powers, upgrading data-sharing between the public and private sectors, simplifying identification checks among others, etc.